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Neb, quick question for you, since you know Arma 3 much better than any of us: do you know any good coop missions or mission packs for small groups (4-8 people, none of them A3 pros) that don't require much in the way of mods? There's a lot on the Steam Workshop, but few of them have been rated.

I really don't know much. I literally only play with a group that makes its own missions. There's always Zeus, which works as if you're an RTS-style dungeon master, but that's one less person playing.

I asked around, and one of the Arma 3 devs said to check out Dynamic Recon Ops. It's one of those things that auto-generates mission objectives.

Thanks, will give that one a try. It's a shame: i love the mission making by the a cold War Rearmed guys, but several of the mission makers seem to have turned against Bohemia Interactive and aren't doing anything for Arma 3, it seems.

So, thanks to the recent Humble Bundle, enough of us have Arma 3 now to give it a try - and thanks to the Steam Workshop, it should be easy to add certain mods. Not that I want to go overboard, having learnt that lesson the hard way...

Date: Saturday, 11 March 2017
Time: 4-6pm UK time
Game: Arma 3

Things to note:

Bring a headset and install the latest version of Teamspeak 3. Note: Make sure to set up Press To Talk (PTT), ideally with a key/button other than Ctrl (which is used in the default Arma 3 keyboard setup).

I think it's worth trying; while it's more graphically intensive, I'm not sure there's automatically that much more data that needs to be transmitted, as the graphics are done locally. However, if it doesn't work at all, I'll definitely also take this into consideration for future sessions and the choice of which game to play - it'd be a shame to lose out on you completely.

Just a note Thirith, there's no ARM version of Teamspeak 3, so I can't run it on my Pi. There's virtual machine software available that allows me to run x86 code on ARM, but it costs money. So looks like you'll be setting up the TS3 server.

Thanks for checking, Malf. It's worked with my second PC most of the time, so it shouldn't be a problem - and if there ever is an issue with the server, we can always go Mumble at short notice.

I'm really curious to see whether/how well ACRE2 works. The original ACRE was a bother to set up, but then that was the unique and wonderful adventure that was running and modding Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead, and once it ran it was a revelation due to the great positional audio. At least in theory it seems that Arma 3 and Steam Workshop make things a lot easier.

Quick reminder concerning the Saturday session, since we're moving on to a new game.

Date: Saturday, 11 March 2017
Time: 4-6pm UK time
Game: Arma 3

Things to note:

Bring a headset and install the latest version of Teamspeak 3. Note: Make sure to set up Press To Talk (PTT), ideally with a key/button other than Ctrl (which is used in the default Arma 3 keyboard setup).

ACRE2 is a fantastic radio mod that also adds great positional voice chat. The regular voice chat works with your TS3 PTT key, the in-game radio works with Caps Lock (default).

Once all the mods have been downloaded, activate them in the Arma 3 Launcher and launch the game at least once. If you run into any problems, please post them in this thread.

I'll be online a bit before 4pm to set up the server and check who's on Steam, and I'll launch a server shortly before the session. Hoping to see you there!

In theory, everything should work... but just in case, if Arma screws with us for one reason or another (not that Arma would ever do that, would it?) and someone isn't able to connect, let's perhaps have GTA V ready as a quick, dirty, deadly alternative.

Sounds good. After today we'll ideally also have a better idea how well Arma 3 works with players who have relatively high ping. Since this is something that Arma 2 did astonishingly well, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Thanks to henke, Malf, Jeshibu and Al_B for our very first session of Arma 3. It definitely still needs some tweaking; some of the missions didn't allow for killed players to take over one of the AI units, which meant that if you were unlucky and got killed too soon, you'd be twiddling your thumbs for 20 minutes. Also, there's definitely something fishy with the ACRE2 radio mod, although I don't know if that's a matter of settings or not, or whether it's by design - half the time we couldn't hear each other, which definitely makes it more of a hassle than an asset.

We will persist, though, possibly without ACRE2, because when it works it's a great coop game. I'll have to see if our annoyances with ACRE2 were there by design, and if they can be toned down or deactivated.

P.S.: Never get caught by a Dutchman with a gun while you're piloting a helicopter. It doesn't end well (except for the Dutchman).

The mod does deteriorate the radio signal based on interference (are two or more people using the radio at the same time?) and objects/environment getting in the way of radio waves. However, these realism features can be turned down or even off server-side, so I'm thinking it's worth tinkering with this and see how this works.

Also, I've read up on the push-to-talk vs. voice-activated issue, and it seems that ACRE2 works well with TS3's voice activation. I'm thinking we should also try this next time, as it is a hassle to have two separate voice chat buttons.

Having said all of this, if we find after tweaking that ACRE doesn't add enough (whether that's for immersion or strategy), we'll drop it and go back to Mumble or TS3 without the mod.

Definitely looking forward to a second session of Arma 3 - with fewer communication problems and less dying, I hope!

This is TBC, but most likely we'll return to Arma 3 on Saturday, 1 April. (No, it's not a joke.) I did a quick test tweaking ACRE2, and we should be able to make it work much more smoothly than it did last time round.

I'd originally planned for Arma 3 on Sat, 1 April, but at least one of the regulars can't make it then. Should we return to Altis and Stratis earlier than planned, namely this week already, on 25 April? Would people be around for that? Or do we already have anything else planned for then?

ACRE2 is a radio mod that also adds positional voice chat. The regular voice chat should work with voice detection, the in-game radio works with Caps Lock (default). Our first test with it was uneven, but I've since tweaked the setup. (If we decide it's not worth it, we'll drop it for future sessions.)

Once all the mods have been downloaded, activate them in the Arma 3 Launcher and launch the game at least once. If you run into any problems, please post them in this thread.

I'll be online a bit before 4pm to set up the server and check who's on Steam, and I'll launch a server shortly before the session. Hoping to see you there!

Thanks to Henke, Jeshibu, Malf and Al_B for a fun session. The start was frustrating because of crashes and disconnects (I suspect it's the ACRE2 radio mod, so we're doing without that one for now), and we still died a hell of a lot (notably in a beautifully executed helicopter insertion/crash), but once we weren't fighting technical issues any more, the session quickly got much, much better.

Next Arma 3 session in a few weeks - I'll post something here beforehand. In the meantime, stay frosty - and always pack a parachute!

Fun Satellite Reign session yesterday, though I tend to suck at it. Some of that I maintain should be blamed on things like UI and pathfinding, which are pretty bad, but some of it is definitely due to me, so I'm glad I'm playing with others who mainly play for the fun and don't mind the occasional mission gone spectacularly wrong because I decided to do a little dance in front of the camera.

Talking of missions gone spectacularly wrong: the next Arma 3 session will be in two weeks, on Saturday 22 April. As they say in Arma: "Save... the... date... at four... o'clock." I'll post details at a later time.

Bring a headset and install the latest version of Teamspeak 3. Note: Voice detection should work just fine, no need for configuring Press To Talk (PTT).

No mods required, but for quality of life I'd very much recommend Shacktac UI and CBA_A3 (the latter is required for the former to run). Easiest way to add them is using the Steam Workshop. Any client-side mod should be fine, really.

We're using Teamspeak 3 for voice chat.

I'll be online a bit before 4pm to set up the server and check who's on Steam, and I'll launch a server shortly before the session. Hoping to see you there!

A Criminal Past is great. It's their best DLC yet imo. It's not retconned into the middle of the story like Missing Link, or clearly chopped out of the game like Desperate Measures or System Rift. It's not as long as Missing Link, but it's the first time I've wanted to immediately replay one of the DLCs because it offers real choices. It doesn't feel as arbitrary not having your augs at the beginning, it feels more natural as you get them along the way (praxis kits aren't just dumped on you at the beginning, but are plentiful throughout the environment), the new environment is pretty novel, and it's not laid out as linearly as missing link. The story makes you guess at the motives of various characters. And, to me, it's just the right length to replay a couple times. It's a shame they're ending it here.

System Rift, on the other hand, clearly was chopped out of the main game, and suffers from the same praxis kit dumping as desperate measures. It's longer than Desperate Measures, so it's a lot more fun than that and lets you build up the character a bit more. The level design is great - the blade is super fun to break into it - but it doesn't give you any real choices aside from your playstyle, and the finale kind of sucks (disappointingly empty sever rooms are followed by an irritating platformer in the Breach, just reminding me further why I didn't get far in Breach). I hope it's properly integrated into the main story in a director's cut - that's the only way I'd both playing it again, despite having a lot of fun in the first 3/4.